Sorry yall for the delay, but here I am to fill you in with some exciting news: The (North Western) road season is over, and Team B+ Radsport went out with a BANG!
To start things off, I give you my Lake Washington Velo Circuit Race Series report:
LWV #3 - Carnation Farms 8/27/2011 9am
Cat 4/5
6 laps, 30 miles
22nd of 59 riders
Jake picked up Ted and I and drove us through a foggy, cool morning out in the beautiful forests of Carnation, WA. Pretty rad conditions for a "Kermesse" style race if I do say so myself. Of course, like many of the other races the Rain City squad of Team B+R has attended this season, we barely made it on time. Don't ask me why, but no matter what time we plan on leaving, we usually have enough time to register and roll up to the start line, no warm up, just attack until we feel fresh enough to breakaway. Not very PRO, but we're young and it works for now.
The course was flat, and technical so the plan was to breakaway after the first lap and get Ted a win. We were unfamiliar with the reality of the course, so it turned out to be easier said than done, especially racing in the amateur category (4/5). It just so turned out that the roads were incredibly narrow and janky (which is cool, but not when your opponents cant handle their bikes very well and aren't nearly as fit/fast as you). There was really only one section of the course to move up on and that was a sketchy two-lane country road with no real visible painted lines, so naturally everyone launched attacks/ or surged to move up in the pack thus taking up both "lanes." Let me get a little more specific with this particular road: pot-holes, dirt, windy, foggy, 2-way, looks like a 1-way country drive way. Badass, right? Well, it was until the 2nd lap when the "plan" was to take place. We were all stuck in the back of the pack (b/c we showed up late, thus lining up in the back), so we started moving up on said road, Ted comes around the outside pretty hard and Jake and I slither our way through everyone else. Just as Ted disappears into the front of the pack I see a huge grey Chevy Silverado driving half on the road and half on the grass trying to slowdown as they realize there really is a bike race going on just like the lead car's sign says. Before I know it, a racer on the outside (oncoming traffic) smashes into the front of the truck at 25+ mph, his bike snaps into pieces, blood, then his body ricochets off the grill and lands 5 in front of the truck. Two or three other riders that were right behind him laid their bikes down to avoid collision. This all happened in a matter of seconds and no more than 10 feet to the left of me, I was certain I just witnessed my first death. As Jake and I slammed on the brakes and turned around to analyze what we just saw, the official in the follow car assured us we didn't want to see it and they had it under control. The race stopped and we rolled back to the staging area a couple miles out.
Once we got there, everyone was already lined up to continue racing after we waited for the ambulance to take care of the situation. I can't speak for Jake and Ted, but as we waited off to the side, I really was sick to my stomach and didn't want to race at all. We probably waited 45 minutes or so before the official told us he was alive and lectured us about the yellow line rule. At that point, I had been distracted enough with conversations not regarding the accident that I accepted the fact we paid money to get here and race, so we agreed to sit in and see what we could do. The race restarted, and as I suspected, we were pretty much stuck in the position we started the race in. With all these slow-pokes doing the "yo-yo" deal on narrow roads, where could we possibly move up? I waited for the open road at 200m to see how far I could move up but couldn't cover enough ground to top 10 from the back. This was the first race that I literally couldn't move up in, and I fancy myself a skilled pack rider. Pretty frustrating, not to mention having the image of a racer colliding with a truck permanently seared into my skull. Bummer race. I honestly think if the pace was hotter, then having the pack strung out would provide ample room to move up if you were fit enough, which we are.
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